Post-Celebi, no hiccups in baggage handling

DESPITE the sudden termination of the contract with Turkish-based ground handling firm, Celebi Airport Services Pvt Ltd, and urgent measures adopted on Thursday night, ground handling operations at the nine airports and the airlines it served remained smooth, said multiple sources across the country.

- S LALITHA @New Delhi

The retention of the employees and the distribution of the workload among other ground handling agencies have facilitated the smooth transition.

Nearly 7,800 employees of Celebi annually handled 5,40,000 tonnes of cargo for 54,000 flights at Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Cochin, Chennai, Goa, Ahmedabad and Kannur.

The civil aviation ministry and airports have gone all out to ensure that passengers were not inconvenienced in any manner due to the sudden decision.

A top official at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport told this newspaper, "We entrusted the responsibility to both AISATS (Tata owned Air India SATS Airport Services Pvt Ltd) and the Bird Group. Celebi's staff has migrated to the new groups. We have not had any confusion at all."